Biometrics measures and analyzes a person's physiological or behavioral characteristics for identification and verification purposes. It associates an individual with a previously determined identity/identities based on certain physical attributes or actions taken by the person. Since many physiological or behavioral characteristics are distinctive to each person, biometric identifiers are inherently more reliable and more capable than password based techniques in differentiating between an authorized person and an imposter.
One type of biometric measurement is fingerprint recognition technology. Many devices today (e.g., laptop computer, computer keyboard, mobile phone, etc.) include fingerprint recognition technology. A user, by swiping or placing their finger on a fingerprint reader may, for example, log onto their computer without having to enter a username and password. A fingerprint reader may be located on the device itself (e.g., reader integrated into the device surface) or as a separate component (e.g., USB device).